


teasing the inevitable

by drifterlovemail



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: M/M, im sad! i read guardian uldren fic before this so now im Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-13 05:48:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20169154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drifterlovemail/pseuds/drifterlovemail
Summary: Uldren Sov is a Guardian now and, well, Cayde has always had a soft spot for guiding fresh Guardians through their new life. Why should Uldren be any different?/in which cayde guides uldren through being a guardian and they're both having a trouble working through the "we both died" thing





	teasing the inevitable

**Author's Note:**

> oh but jacob how is cayde alive???? what do you mean the scorn must've just shot some other ghost despite the explicit death of both cayde and his ghost and cayde just got lost again and presumed dead???? i dont fucking know. im gay

Being risen, to Cayde, compares a lot to stepping out of the shower. Clean and new, however you felt before. Uldren doesn’t quite get that experience. People whisper ‘Prince’ as he passes, and worse to his face. Cayde, ironically, gets worse for being near him. Most is from his own hunters — but they’ll come back in the end. They always do. The rumors range; a few about Cayde’s own masochism and a few about the Awoken Prince getting a Vanguard under his thumb. Some of them go as far as full conspiracies that remind Cayde of trashy novels he finds ( and buys ) on thrift store floors. Someone needs to drag the sad bastard around. Yeah, it might technically be Ikora’s job, if anyone’s, but Cayde-6 thrives on being helpful and doesn’t hold a grudge.  
— Both of those statements, of course, are lies. He’s going to keep thinking about it until both of them stop getting glared at in the Tower, though.  
Okay, maybe he feels a little bad for the bastard. The Dark Age sucked and all, but at least it was rare for someone to be specifically gunning for his head. Uldren gets people making attempts on his life and his Ghost’s like casual brunch plans.  
Besides, he’s Uldren, but he isn’t…Uldren. He’s…showered. This Uldren doesn’t have the trauma of an Awoken’s war, hasn’t learned the devotion that dragged him to death. If Mara Sov can apparently determine this new Uldren Sov isn’t worth meeting, Cayde determines, he can meet him differently. Even with the giant glowing ‘we caused one another’s deaths’ sign hanging over them.

All the sympathy for a new Guardian in the world wouldn’t stop him from being irritated at severed Hive threads thrown at his feet. Hive blood was fucking disgusting, congealing if you let it be until it looked like some fucked up black jello. This was never going to come out of his boots.  
“Bit of a grudge?”  
Uldren grimaces at that. God, Cayde thinks, he does that an awful lot. Not that it’s the fairest joke he’s ever made. Uldren sits beside him and Cayde nudges his shoulder with his own. It doesn’t get much; Uldren only throwing him a look but not shifting in his expression.  
“We aren’t getting off-planet for another few hours. Lighten up.” Cayde tells him, and has the light of his cheeks flicker to replace grinning at his own pun as Uldren actually smiles. “Ah - I almost had you laughing there! Can’t deny that. Zavala owes me glimmer. Told him I’d be the first one to get you to smile.”  
“I smile,” Uldren argues. “Always been this egotistical? Maybe you just aren’t funny.”  
“You hang around, though. Stick around a lot longer at a time than Ikora and Zavala do, at this point.”  
“Maybe you’re filling the void of whatever court jester we had.”  
“Awoken didn’t have jesters, unless that’s another one of those things Mara hid off. So ha. I’m happy to dance around however you like, though. I think I’m rather good at it.”  
Cayde knows there are things Uldren wants to ask and won’t. It shows in the glint in his eye when Cayde says ‘one of those things Mara hid off’ and with every look in the Tower. Part of him was glad he doesn’t bother — none of them are going to be questions Cayde wants to answer, and ones Uldren will want the answers to even less. Ignorance is bliss as a Guardian, especially when you’re Uldren Sov.  
That doesn’t mean the man doesn’t need a fucking therapist. Meanwhile, all he has is Cayde. It draws pity, really.  
Cayde is close enough to Uldren and slides closer, puts his weight on him as if he’s leaning against a wall.  
“I’ve been thinking about how you killed me, and everyone thought I was dead, and went and killed you too.” Cayde says.   
It’s a ripping of a bandaid on the conversation, if you were to then put the bandaid back on and rip it off again. As in: completely unnecessary and rude. Uldren tenses so stiff underneath him Cayde isn’t even pushed off of his shoulder.  
“Watch it.” Uldren says, and the threat rings hollow. Cayde shrugs.  
“Wanted to tease the inevitable a bit. Not that I’m eager for you to again, don’t get me wrong. Point is, I don’t really care. Wound up worse for you than for me, right? I die all the time, and I get back up. Shit, Zavala killed me on accident once. You died just last week.”  
“Because you didn’t - “  
“Because I left the ammo with Shaxx, yeah, I know. Mercy upon me.” He shifts before he tries to speak again. “What I mean is like, if some sort of guilt over it, don’t. You definitely wouldn’t have been sorry, even before all that Alejandro shit got to your head. I’m not here to die on your spike, or whatever.”

There’s a long silence in between them both then, quiet save for the swaying of tree branches and Hive growling in the distance. For Cayde, it feels like a fucking eternity, while it can’t last enough for Uldren.   
Uldren waits another beat, and uses Cayde’s unfamiliar closeness to press his mouth to his. It’s an easy thing, not as unpleasant as he thought kissing an exo would be. Did they plan for that? Doesn’t matter.   
Cayde kisses Uldren back and realizes within a few seconds this is probably his first, as far as his memories go. It earns a shred of simple sentimentality, a gentler touch, left hand going to push Uldren’s hair from his face. If his bangs get caught in something on Cayde’s face, it’s going to hurt.  
“Bad idea.” Uldren whispers.  
“I’m full of ‘em.” Cayde replies, other hand going to the other side of Uldren’s jaw.   
There’s a lot of things Uldren doesn’t understand about Cayde. From what he’s gathered in the Tower, it isn’t a rare situation.   
“Masochist.” Uldren calls him, but the accusation comes with no real passion, only sighed against metal.   
“Absolutely. Hubris worth smiting, and all.” Cayde’s only kissing his jaw, then. “I head off to the void, I’ll meet you there, though.”


End file.
